The positioning method of the riveting hole of the aircraft panel is studied. A riveting hole positioning method based on local active contour model is proposed. Firstly, the rough positioning of the riveting hole is performed by global threshold segmentation based on grayscale histogram and shape method. Then a traversal circle with the rough positioning coordinates as the center of the circle is created, and the energy circle is constructed with the traversal circle as the constraint. The energy equation is established to solve the precise positioning position of the rivet hole with the smallest energy point in the traversing circle. Finally, the visual guiding riveting hole positioning experiment is carried out. The experimental measurement of the positioning error is less than 0.05mm, which meets the process requirements for automatic riveting of aircraft panel. Moreover, it has higher accuracy than the traditional regional active contour model and has certain feasibility.